Ar Tonelico 2. Actually, I was not the one to buy it. I wanted it for my birthday and my sister was awesome enough to go to our local gamestore and buy it for me. I was embarrased asking for it and playing it, so I wouldn't be surprised if she was embarrased buying it. On the other hand, she's pretty openminded when it comes to games and the people at the store are really nice, so...

Oh, but buying Atelier Rorona 3 there was pretty embarrasing. Not because of the game or the cover, but because I needed it very badly. One of the magazines I write for promised a Atelier Rorona review, but the reviewcopy the publisher had promised us never arrived. It took three trips and some begging, but they did sell me a copy as soon as it came in, a couple of days before the official releasedate. Now they probably call me deadline-girl behind my back ~_~

On time, at a different store, I went to the register with a small stack of JRPGs. The kind with colourful and cute animelike images on cover. Then, I noticed a game my brother had been asking for for a long time: Def Jam Vendetta. His birthday was coming up and it was pretty cheap, so why not, right? The guy behind the register gave me a funny look and then let his stamp go wild on my stampcard.

My hero and black mage murdered practically every random encounter, but the bosses can be quite difficult. I made the mistake of completing the first tower before taking on the final boss. I got my ass kicked three times. Luck and micromanagement saved the day.

I love knitting, crocheting, that kind of stuff. Since I make way more than I could use or even give away, I started selling my stuff at animeconventions together with some likeminded people. We also give amigurumi workshops there sometimes. One of the fun parts is that we go to places of the country and types of animecons we normally wouldn't have visited. Yaoicon was actually a lot of fun!

Manga. I read too much manga. You can find over 1500 volumes on my shelves. Since I wanted to do something more with this, I started writing for Aniway, a magazine about anime, manga, videogames and Japanese culture, earlier this year. I don't get paid, but I do get free manga and games once in a while.

What else? My two adorable little rabbits! Their names are Chibi and Senka, they both have a dark past and their totally different personalities make them a great couple (and lots of fun to watch!). Chibi is very outgoing and overprotective, he enjoys running around and fighting cats. His favourite food is banana. Senka thinks everyone and everything is annoying and prefers to hide in the shadows of the big cherry blossom tree. She's a lot nicer than she looks, it just takes some time to get to know her.

The bosses level up with you, so grinding is kind of useless unless you're grinding for jewels. Some jobs have very useful final skills that can be game breaking, so you really want those jewels. There are also some pieces of equipment that really benefit from upgrading. The dagger the princess comes with (King's Dagger?) is one of the best weapons in the game.

Example: merchants have a skills that allows them to base damage on the amount of money you possess. There is a minigame you can use to earn huge amounts of money if you have the patience. You do the math.

As for the story, it's like a trip to 1990. Some things only make sense if you're using 8-bit RPG logic, characters are barely developed and the game uses as many clichés as possible.

Basically, it's nostalgia with pretty graphics, best played on a lazy Sunday afternoon while munching on brightly coloured cereal.

When you heal the game decides your target for you. That brought up the red flag for me. I'm not sure what the motivation for that is. Kid game? Casual? Fear of too many menus? Why take control out of the players hands?

To speed up the battles. It works.

And yes, it does get difficult if you don't master the jobsystem. It's kind of like Wild Arms XF. Some jobs may seem silly and weak, but they're lifesavers when used the right way at the right time.